History

Biotechnology has a long tradition in Czech Republic, dating back to the Middle Ages, with roots in traditional fermentation technologies like wine and cheese-making, beer brewing and production of distilled alcoholic beverages. The first recorded mention of wine production in the Czech lands dates back to the year 276. It relates to the town of Pálava in Moravia, where the conquering Roman legion, the Vindobona, laid out plans for vineyards. In 1358, wine-making in Czech Kindom received Royal patronage under the King Charles IV, who issued decrees regulating vineyards and wine production. Beer brewing in Czech Republic was firstly mentioned in the foundation chapter of the King Vratislav II from the 11th century. Many Czech breweries were established as early as the 12th century. In the course of time, several skills have reached certain quality standards and have laid the foundations for further industrial production. An awakened interest in understanding biotechnology processes led to the establishment of the Technological University in Prague in 1707, as the first of this kind in the world. The second half of the 19th century, when Bohemia and Moravia were the industrial heartland of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, brought the development of fermentative production, the formation of educational systems and the establishment of the first research organizations like the Research Institute of Brewing and Malting, which was founded in 1887. One of the major contributions to the world science and today biotechnology was the cell theory formulated by Czech physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkyně in 1837. Not all new biological discoveries were derived within the bounds of universities at that time. In the Augustinian monastery in Brno, Johan Gregor Mendel discovered the existence of paired elementary units of heredity (now called genes) and established the statistical laws governing them. The Mendel's studies in plant hybridization and the basic laws of heredity published in 1866 laid basis for the development of modern genetics, molecular biology and molecular biotechnology disciplines, and this not only in Czech Republic. #img_110#.<> Jan Evangelista Purkyně , 1787–1869 – anatomist and physiologist – formulated the cell theory (source: Smithsonian Institution Library). Czech biotechnology after World War II recorded the development in mainly pharmaceutical production of antibiotics and biologically active substances, production of metabolites (e.g. alcohols, alkaloids, organic acids, amino acids) and microbial modification of various chemical compounds. This expansion of industrial biotechnology evoked the formation of the Research Institute of Antibiotics and Biotransformations in 1966. The 1960s and 1970s are remembered as an era of widespread interest in enzyme application for washing powders, diagnostic preparation and starch syrup production. From the beginning of the 1980’s, Czech biotechnology became a miscellaneous sector with activities in the preparation of monoclonal antibodies for human, animal and plant diagnostics, tissue culture programs, applications of genetic engineering and others. !!!Present The Czech Republic covers an area of 78 860 km2 and has a population of 10.2 million people (Table 1). Its gross domestic product growth was 4.8% in 2005, the inflation rate 1.9% and the unemployment rate 8.0%. The Czech Republic joined the European Union as one of ten new members in May 2004. The country has competitive infrastructure costs, a stable business environment, low-cost and well-skilled workforce which have attracted inflows of foreign investments to the country in recent years, modernized its industrial infrastructure and increased productivity. In the biotechnology sector, Lonza Biotech invested $ 6.25 million in the production plant located in Kourim, increasing its production capacity by 40%. This plant is producing L-carnitin since 2002, but also provides facilities for contract-based production and downstream-processing of active pharmaceutical ingredients. The company Baxter localized its cell-culture and recombinant vaccines in Bohumile by acquiring the facility SEVAC from the government and investing $ 77.7 million. In 1994, the IVAX International B.V. bought one of the leading Czech pharmaceutical companies including its fermentation facility for the production of cyclosporine, with investments of $ 20.6 million. The governmental investments to research and development have also been growing in recent years (Figure 1). #img_106# Figure 1. Total expenditures on research and development (in US$ per capita) in Central and Eastern European countries Biotechnology centers are typically located around main research institutions which are represented by universities, institutes of the Academy of Sciences and specialized research institutes. The universities are spread all over the country providing the education to 298 000 students of which 56 000 students are enrolled in life sciences (Figure 2). The Academy of Sciences is organized in sixty institutes and five supporting units staffed by a total of 6400 employees. In recent years, smaller research entities called the national centers of basic research were established by the Ministry of Education, providing the platform for academic teams working on similar research topics. Analogously, the national centers of applied research were founded jointly by partners from academia and industry. Biotechnology companies typically co-localize with the academic institutions (Figure 2). #img_109# Figure 2. Geographical distribution of university students (top), research entities (middle) and biotechnology companies (bottom) in the Czech Republic By the end of 2005 there were 65 biotechnology companies with their main activities focused on production and manufacturing (38%), research and development (30%), services (23%) and others (9%). Current major biotechnology hubs in the country are the Prague region hosting 22 companies and the South Moravian region around Brno with 12 companies, but many new biotechnology spin-offs are being established around other cities with tradition in life sciences education and research, like Ceske Budejovice, Hradec Kralove, Olomouc and other places. There is less correspondence in the development of various biotechnology sectors with regards to companies and academia (Figure 3). Environmental biotechnology (22%) and development of basic biotechnology (6%) are two extremes explored by the companies, later being quite naturally underrepresented in comparison to more practically oriented segments. Academic entities have research equally spread over various segments, plant biotechnology being the only exception when practiced in 36% of research institutions. #img_114# Figure 3. Biotechnology sectors in companies (left) and research entities (right) !!!Future Commenting on the future of such a broad field as biotechnology will always be subjective, greatly depending on the frame of reference and background of the evaluator. We see a number of strong points that make us to believe that Czech biotechnology will continue to develop, but it is good to also keep in mind the factors that are slowing down this development (Table 2). The future progress will naturally depend on how much the country can benefit from its tradition and current position, but also how it will deal with existing problems. We expect more direct investments coming to the biotechnology sector taking a benefit of skilled and cheap manpower. Whether or not investors will also undertake research and development in the country is an important issue that will depend on the presence of good research institutions in particular regions, and the quality of education provided to university students enrolled in life science programs. Many spin-offs will be established as the result of improving conditions for research in the biotechnology sector, but also growing awareness of researchers about the protection of intellectual rights and ever-improving conditions for start-ups of small businesses in the country. Here, the role of the state will be important, in order to keep investing to research and education, establishing institutions like innovation or transfer-technology centers, operating technological incubators for small companies and providing consultancy and administrative support. Only a small percentage of these new companies will survive and become established on European and world markets, but their competitiveness can be increased by various tools like educating managers with essential knowledge of life sciences, networking of inventors with investors, or clustering of existing entities in particular regions. Critical will be the continuous interaction of small businesses with research institutions, which is far from sufficient at the moment. We believe that quality of research will grow as a result of improved working conditions, new infrastructure and specialized instrumentation, return of skilled post-doctoral fellows from abroad and introduction of new evaluation systems in academia. Long-term (5–7 years) national funding programs operated on competitive basis are creating a good environment for the development of scientific ideas to a level at which they can be patented and applied in practice. These programs are completed by European Union projects and other national and international granting schemes. Many Czech research teams are joining EU research projects taking benefit from international collaborations, exchange of ideas and experience. These positive aspects are somewhat depreciated by the ever-increasing bureaucracy and complicated rules for using allocated funds, which needs to be changed in the future to make research in Czech biotechnology competitive at a global scale. ----- #img_107# Jirí Damborský Co-editor of this issue Jirí Damborský1, Zbyněk Prokop1 and Michal Kostka2 Email: jiri@chemi.muni.cz 1 Loschmidt Laboratories, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic 2 South Moravian Innovation Centre, Brno, Czech Republic References * [1] Eurostat Yearbook. Euractiv, 2005. * [2] World Competitiveness Yearbook, 2001-2004. * [3] Czech Biotech Report, South Moravian Innovation Centre, Brno, 2006. "Source":[http://www.biotechnology-journal.com] Biotechnology Journal 1: 487-490 (2006)

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